Episode 110: The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe
b'
On this special Halloween episode of The Literary Life, Angelina (Harriet Vane), Cindy (Professor MacGonagall), and Thomas (Lord Peter Wimsey), talk about Edgar Allan Poe\\u2019s tale, \\u201cThe Masque of the Red Death.\\u201d If you are a Patron, you can watch this episode and see our hosts in their costumes as they discuss the story!
Angelina begins the chat with a little background on Edgar Allan Poe and his thoughts on the imagination and why he wrote the way he did, as well as connections with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Thomas points out the connection between this story and Boccaccio\\u2019s Decameron. Highlights of the discussion include Poe\\u2019s use of medieval motifs, the imagery and symbolism in Poe\\u2019s writing, the modern person\\u2019s avoidance of considering death, and Poe\\u2019s idea of life as a play within a play.
Get in on the Western Films and Fiction webinar on November 22nd with Thomas and James Banks! Register here to join in!
Next week we will continue our series on Mansfield Park. To view the schedule for the episodes in the series, see our Upcoming Events page. Also, if you want to join our members-only forum off Facebook, check out our Patreon page to learn more!
Commonplace Quotes:
I am more concerned by what \\u201cthe Bomb\\u201d is doing already. One meets young people who make the threat of it a reason for poisoning every pleasure and evading every duty in the present. Didn\\u2019t they know that, bomb or no bomb, all men die, many in horrible ways? There is no good moping and sulking about it.
C. S. Lewis
There are certain evil men who would be less dangerous if there were not some scrap of virtue in them.
La Rochefoucauld
This handmaiden (poesy) is not forbidden to moralize in her own fashion. She is not forbidden to depict but to reason and preach of virtue.
Edgar Allan Poe, from his review of Longfellow\\u2019s Ballads
Sonnet \\u2013 To Science
by Edgar Allan Poe
Science! true daughter of Old Time thou art!
\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0Who alterest all things with thy peering eyes.
Why preyest thou thus upon the poet\\u2019s heart,
\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0Vulture, whose wings are dull realities?
How should he love thee? or how deem thee wise,
\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0Who wouldst not leave him in his wandering
To seek for treasure in the jewelled skies,
\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0Albeit he soared with an undaunted wing?
Hast thou not dragged Diana from her car,
\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0And driven the Hamadryad from the wood
To seek a shelter in some happier star?
\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0Hast thou not torn the Naiad from her flood,
The Elfin from the green grass, and from me
The summer dream beneath the tamarind tree?
Source: The Complete Poems and Stories of Edgar Allan Poe (1946)
Book List:
Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe
God in the Dock by C. S. Lewis
Maxims and Reflections by Fran\\xe7ois de La Rochefoucauld
\\u201cThe Philosophy of Composition\\u201d by Edgar Allan Poe
The Murders in the Rue Morge by Edgar Allan Poe
The Decameron by Giovanni Boccacio
Comus by John Milton
The Tempest by William Shakespeare
The Castle of Utronto by Horace Walpole
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Oxford Book of English Verse ed. by Arthur Quiller-Couch
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Support The Literary Life:
Become a patron of The Literary Life podcast as part of the \\u201cFriends and Fellows Community\\u201d on\\xa0Patreon,\\xa0and get some amazing bonus content! Thanks for your support!
Connect with Us:
You can find Angelina and Thomas at\\xa0HouseofHumaneLetters.com, on Instagram\\xa0@angelinastanford,\\xa0and on Facebook at\\xa0https://www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/
Find Cindy at\\xa0morningtimeformoms.com, on Instagram\\xa0@cindyordoamoris\\xa0and on Facebook at\\xa0https://www.facebook.com/cindyrollins.net/. Check out\\xa0Cindy\\u2019s own Patreon page\\xa0also!
Follow\\xa0The Literary Life\\xa0on Instagram, and jump into our private Facebook group, The Literary Life Discussion Group, and let\\u2019s get the book talk going!\\xa0http://bit.ly/literarylifeFB
'